From the Jungle to the skies
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2007
1
2
14
Trip End
Jan 10, 2008
Cusco,
Peru
Thursday, October 18, 2007
We flew from Lima to Puerto Maldonado, a town in the Amazon Basin where the humidity was immediately apparent, and the sense of distance from the ´world´ increasing steadily.
(I´ve decided this would be good place to go into hiding)
From there we drove for an hour out to the ´port´ on the river Tambopata, where we got in to a long boat and headed off down the river for another hour to the extremely remote Explorers Inn Lodge.
There we spent a couple of days searching for wildlife along the river at night, through the forest at dusk, and luckily avoiding the daily downpours signalling the beginning of the long rainy season throughout the Amazon.
One morning we rose at 4am to hike out to a virtually untouched lake, to try to spot some otters, another night we silently floated along the Tambopata, spotting caiman.
But as soon as we had become accustomed to the rain and humidity, we returned to Puerto Maldonado, and flew over and up to Cusco, at an altitude of 3200m.
This is the 2nd biggest city in Peru and as the entry point to Machu Picchu, the 4th of the 7 wonders of the world, is also quite touristy. I am slowly getting used to the high altitude, but everyone has felt a little out of breath at times, a feeling likely to be exacerbated by the start of the trek through the Lares Valley early tomorrow. On this trek, we´ll rise to heights of 4500m, before reaching Machu Picchu in 4 days.
I won´t be returning to the depths of below 3000m again for at least 2 weeks so i will no doubt have visited every other ´highest ---- the world´ by then (I´ve already ticked off the highest irish pub in the world)
